Patrick J. OToole

Great story

Revisado: 12-30-16

This is my second listen to this book. Great story, interesting characters, great performance. recommended.

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Fair, exhaustive, and thoroughly researched.

Revisado: 10-06-16

In decades to come this will be regarded as one of the most important books of our time.

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My favorite book of 2015

Revisado: 11-08-15

In 2014, my favorite book was The Martian. After having listened to a few books this year, including The Martian a third time, it was looking like it was going to be my favorite book of 2015 also. Then I found The Fold. The main character is great fun to be with and his special talent is one I wish I had. The secondary characters are all distinct and interesting.

The story develops at a nice pace and although I expected the one "scientific" plot twist that explains the door, that didn't detract at all from the suspense and sense of mystery at what was going to happen next and, more importantly, how were the characters going get through it.

This is master level story telling.

The performance by Ray Porter was excellent. The characters all had distinct voices and expressive qualities. It's easy to forget the dozen or so characters were the voice of one person.

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Great world building and story but too long.

Revisado: 05-23-15

This book has some great world building, interesting aliens, and interesting idea about different zones in the galaxy. But in the end I felt it was too long and too crowded. There are two main story lines in this book. The main story about the blight and the zones of the galaxy, and a side story about the dog-like group-mind creatures called Tines.

Both stories are interesting and would have made nice books. Together, they were just too much and nothing was gained, IMO, by having them together. The main story about the blight could have functioned just fine without the Tines sub-plot. As it is, I felt the Tines story was distracting.

Venor Vinge gets bonus points for the exploration of the idea that the galaxy has different zone where intelligence and physics differ. This was fascinating. He explores this in detail and does it well.

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Mostly boring, but with a satisfying end.

Revisado: 04-14-15

About half way through, I almost gave up on this book. The book is largely the main character telling us about what he's doing and about the pop culture of the 80's and about all the research he's done to solve the great quest that serves as the plot of the book. But all that narrative, and there is A LOT of narrative, gets boring. It is, in a very real sense, a person talking about their research about the pop culture of the 80's, then telling you about them reading a journal about someone else experiencing the pop culture of the 80's, then describing themselves playing watching movies, listening to music and playing video games from the 80's.

The problem with all this information is that it didn't serve a purpose to the reader. In a mystery, the information can be used by the reader to figure out whodunit. In a fantasy novel, the details about a magic system can be used by the reader to figure out how the main character is going to overcome evil. The information in this book, couldn't be used in that way because the insights and revelations were told to the reader as the main character discovered them.

The scenes where the characters were interacting and actually doing things together were interesting and entertaining. But that amounts to a small percentage of the book.

I wish there was more character interaction and action. It shows that the writer has some skill at story telling. Perhaps in other books he will focus on that and leave off the endless reference material.

That said, the end was quite good. The resolution of the various plot lines was satisfying and despite the (very) long (and mostly boring) journey, I was glad I stay with it until the end.

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Wonderful book. -

Revisado: 03-06-15

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes. It's a good book, with interesting characters and steam punk technology. The two young main characters are solid and well written

Any additional comments?

This is a great book. It's interesting, entertaining and fun. My only complaint, is it feels incomplete. But that's a small disappointment. The performance by Alan Cumming is excellent. It takes a skilled artist to do an Austrian accent that doesn't sound like a parody of Arnold and Alan pulled it off.

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Wonderful, entertaining hard sci-fi

Revisado: 08-19-14

What did you love best about The Martian?

There are parts of this book that are laugh out loud funny. The main character is a very pleasant fellow to hang around with. I enjoyed this much more then I expected to.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Martian?

There are many. When he blows up the hab. When he figures out how to detect which way the storm is moving.

What about R. C. Bray’s performance did you like?

I loved the performance. The voice of the main character was lively and expressive. There were a couple of pure narrative chapter that were appropriately read flat and direct. My only complaint, is that through some of the book he read too fast. There were a lot of numbers and facts to digest. But that was very minor. Overall, an excellent performance.

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